Key duplicating machines for biting a key blank to duplicate a key is well-known in the art. An example of such machines is described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,842,117. That patent discloses utilizing projecting clamp pins and key head wall configurations for properly positioning the key and the jaw clamp. It also discloses methods of aligning keys in key cutting machines.
There is a need to provide a clamping device or assembly which is simple to load without extensive training or the user person or the use of charts to look up and to accurately cut two types of common keys, namely household and automotive keys. These keys are of the shoulder stop key type and the tip-shoulder double-sided key types. There is also a need to provide a clamping device or assembly for each of these two types of keys and key blanks which would accommodate the shortest to the longest keys, and the thinnest and the thickest of these. The device or assembly would need to be able to compensate for these variations without additional operator input. The key cutting process has to be as simple as possible and the device has to provide improved clamping and positioning of the key and key blank.